Espresso and Lemon Soda
We actually sleep well, but are not really awake in the morning. The lady's announcement in about 6 languages really gets on my nerves. First she tells us where the cafés are open and from when. And then she goes through each parking deck, who has to be where and when, so that a smooth exit is guaranteed. I assume all this is said in English, Spanish, French, Italian, a little German, and definitely Arabic and Moroccan. Possibly Catalan as well. In any case, there is no end to it. She talks and talks and at some point I am actually awake. We roll up our sleeping mats, put our sleeping bags into the bags for the last time and set off for our meeting point. But we don't know where it is. We develop a strategy: we look for other bikers and simply follow them. In the hope that they know where to go. This ship really has 9 floors and there are people everywhere and on the lower floors there are all the cars, motorbikes and trucks. I admire those who can see through this chaos. So we follow the two motorcyclists from Dresden, who don't know where to go either, but have a clever plan: first a coffee. And lo and behold, right next to the Café Atlantik is our meeting point for Deck D. Because that's where we obviously parked. We didn't remember that either, of course, but a lady who was right behind us when we drove in remembered it. So we are safe and wait for the ship to dock. Only minutes later, the security guards let us down to our Felix, we pack up our stuff in peace and quiet this time and jet out of our ferry like professionals.
A short stop in Genoa is still on the agenda, after all we want to buy Pesto Genovese and then head north. We would like to reach Lake Maggiore today and camp there. We drive leisurely overland and I have to say that I really like Italy. I love the colourfulness, the beautiful villages, the liveliness of the markets and above all the green. Everywhere the gardens are green. Full of plants, full of flowers. My eyes literally soak it up.
On the way, we get some foccacia and eat it with one of our glasses of pesto. We make stops in between to have an espresso here and a lemon soda there for Gerd.
At some point we arrive at the lake and have only one wish: to get into the cool water. So, out with our swimsuits and into the lake. It is sooo great. It's a bit fresher than the Mediterranean, but unbelievably great. I would love to splash around in here forever. We choose a quiet spot and make the most of the time. We enjoy the bath and the water. We splash around and really enjoy ourselves. Only now do we realise that we haven't showered or done anything like that for our body hygiene in two days. But now it's time. So we take another dip and quickly rinse off our hair. Washing our hair hasn't been an issue for weeks. But rinsed regularly with water or in the sea and we already have fluffy-soft hair.
Here we make a new plan. We want to visit Alex on Sunday. So we go right along the Lago and then over the Gotthard. But today we only drive as far as Bellinzona. Here we once again nestle in a youth hostel and in the evening we stroll hungrily through the street food festival and fill our bellies.
